another worlds burdens to carry
by deadpoolhulk
Summary: a monologue of what Samus is thinking and feeling, as well as why she has never given up, during the last world and battle of Metroid Prime Three. *spoilers for the game and series as a whole.*


This is a one-shot showing what Samus was thinking during the final level of Metroid prime 3: corruption. It's one long monologue so I'm not going to use speech marks as this is nothing but thoughts.

So obviously there are going to be spoilers. it starts just after she becomes stuck in hyper mode. (I told you there would be spoilers.)

The small data screen on my visor tells me I am a dead woman, running on borrowed time.

I better get moving. Only get to die once, might as well go out spectacularly. Come on Samus, on your feet.

She's been waiting for you.

Or have I been waiting for her?

Does it make any difference really? I'm dead remember? The legendary bounty hunter Samus Aran is dying of her own compulsive need to bear everything on her shoulders. It would be funny if it was happening to anyone else. I really wish I was someone else. It's a weird feeling knowing you're going to die, it feels nothing like I expected, I have been in fights that are seemingly hopeless, but it's nothing like this. my usual instinct of fighting till I go down or I think of a way to wiggle out of deaths clutches is useless. Hell, according to this, every shot I take is quickening things up, so that's something new. I have to try and ignore the thoughts that I have prided myself on reacting to almost instinctively for years, save shots, only destroy the Metroids that are actively hostile.

Playing my last words back, that really is the final sign this whole thing is messed up. I just decided to let Metroids live. What next, I'm going to save a Space Pirate? Ridiculous. I have spent most of my life killing those monsters, Metroids and Space Pirates, but sometimes I question why I bother. every time I take out a Metroid hive, every base or fleet of Pirates I kill, every damn victory I limp away from, half dead with my suit and adrenaline being the only things that are holding me together, I let myself dare to hope. Maybe. Just maybe, I've finally driven you bastards back, I've wiped you out. At the very least you are being forced to regroup or lick your wounds. But no. of cause not, as soon as I'm back at my ship the federation are requesting support because of another damn raid or attack. And it never ends, I just helped with the conquest of the Space Pirates home world and I refuse to even smile about it. Because I refuse to accept that it's going to do anything then cause a mass attack on some other planet, which will be taken over within hours because the natives are all pacifists or something. And then I'll be the one they send in to try and make a difference. Only I'll be dead, well so much for that I guess! Why am I feeling so messed up about this? I've been in lose-lose situations before, hell I've been in worse positions then this, with less weapons and no where to go and without a giant armada above me that's on my side for a nice change. Maybe it's because of her. The one they titled with a twisted version of my name.

Dark Samus.

Just thinking the words makes me angry.

Angry with her for everything she's done, everyone who's dead because of her mad little campaign.

Angry with myself for not managing to kill her and make it stick.

Angry with the world for giving that abomination walking around in my image a confirmation that it and I are the same. That she is what? What I will become on the long overdue day I finally snap and become a mindless killer? Something that took the same path as me but, what couldn't make it to the end? And now I'm remembering something, one line I read on a Pirates database. One line: "surely we are cursed" there thoughts on when they finally got it through there thick exoskeletons that me and her are not the same person, and now I'm thinking that when she mercilessly started to kill every single living thing on there home world, it reminded them of me. And I hate myself for it but I take that as a compliment. That when I tear a path of death and broken corpses through there numbers they remember me as akin to the most evil and deadly thing in the universe. Then I remember that they now see her as some kind of Goddess mixed with a queen, which changes things. Because if she's there God. Then what would that make me? I think I like that idea.

The small Leviathan finally dies, it offers a way down and I'm falling into what looks like an arena.

It's fitting because here you are.

I found you.

Or did you know I would come and so patiently waited for me?

Doesn't matter, I'm never going to get the answer because today, at least one of us dies.

I look at you, you look at me. And for a moment neither of us moves nor says a word.

When I look back at my life, I can't pick out the moment I became what Stands here with my heart hammering in my chest like it wants to die just so it can stop. Because God Damn it, I'm scared. I'm freaking terrified of you. And this is a feeling that I can recognise, because I feel it every time I face Ridley, every time I've faced you or one of those puppets that used to be my fellow hunters. It's a fear that grips me because i feel it when I face something that has caused me nothing but pain, sorrow loss and the occasional bitter tear for so long that I just feel tired. it was Ridley who killed my parents, burned my whole world to ashes and would have just forgotten it as another Tuesday if not for me. And yet I still find myself wondering which of you I hate the most.

We move. You glide to the left, I run to the right, and we are firing. desperate to end it, to remove the thing that is so close to destroying everything we've fought for. Maybe we are alike. My shots hit you, yours return the favour, and neither of us feels our shields take the hit. But I can't help but wonder if you feel as much satisfaction from it as I do. Can you feel anything? I have no idea how your mind works, I'm guessing that you hate me. Can you even remember me as anything but another hurdle to destroy and move past? I know nothing about you and yet I feel like I understand you. Or maybe I'm just hoping that you know who I am in case you win.

With grim satisfaction I watch you fall, and for another stupid moment I let myself feel hope, I let myself think I have won. But no. as always you have another sick trick left. the Aurora unit. I should of expected this, Rundas, Ghor, Gandrayda, and now another good being is forced to dance on your puppet strings? fine. I'll free another being from your grasp. this changes nothing, I will not hesitate, you are not going to get to mew with this. stop with the confidence and laughter. stop thinking you've won just because you can once again show how merciless and evil you are.

But the truth is you've lost. This fight doesn't matter, it never did. If I kill you, it's over it's all finally over. And I die moments latter coughing on phazon, content in the knowledge of that fact. But I'll die content if you kill me first, because there's an entire armada up there and the moment I go down then they will blast you and your planet until it's a blackened crater. So you've already lost because unlike you I'm ready to die. I want to die. There are times that I think I died when a flash of talons tore through my mother, and I just haven't been smart enough to notice it yet. Or maybe I should have died? My mother would have been saved and it all would be for the best. Maybe I should just stop moving and let you end it? Or order an orbital strike on my position. Is there a point to me carrying on, loved by no one, missed only by those who will miss me as another gun to aid there cause? I've asked myself this before, several times, and the answer is always the same.

No.

Of cause not. I'm being ridiculous. I have to live, there's no other option. I know why I am unloved, and it's the same reason many are under the assumption that I am a man. its that in a job like this, you don't have much time for bonding, and those I go into the fight with, ninety percent of the time, die horribly while I alone survive. And I used to think that it was fate or some rubbish, the universe hates me enough to take away everyone I care for. But that's stupid, the universe doesn't care, planets have died and crumbled before my eyes and I have wept for them longer then the "universe" gave a damn. No the reason I am time and time again the only one to live is simple.

I am the best. As vain as it sounds it's true, I am the living nightmare of the Space Pirates themselves, I have watched more planets die then most will visit in a life time, and I have buried larger and more dangerous threats to the galaxy then you, my evil doppelganger. So no! I refuse to let you have the satisfaction of taking my life or watching me die. I am going to live for every second longer I can manage, Curuption be damned, because after you there will be something else. There's always going to be something else. And I'll fight it to. And I'll kill it, and maybe in the end I will have no choice but to follow Ghor's lead when my body finally slows down, from injuries or age, who knows. Because you see I have a compulsion. I have to try and bare all the problems I can on my own shoulders and then more. Because I will always remember that i have made a difference, no matter what happens it is a better place we are currently fighting in, because of what I have done. I've saved lives and planets and even if I have failed to save all of them I know I tried. So one day I will die, and I will most likely be happy about it. But you die first. You die first, unloved and with no one missing you except those who fought for your cause.

And you do. as little as I can believe it, your last shield in the form of an Aurora unit fails you and you fall. I watch your spirit start to fade and I want to celebrate the fact that you are finished, but the only thing I can think are words that make me hate my self even as I say them to you.

"Goodbye Sister."

And you're gone. You are gone and you take your sickness with you. Numbly I realise that in some weird way you just saved my life, and I'm forcing my small smile down as soon as I notice it. Then the planet starts to shake and I'm running before it registers that with the end of Phazon the planet is done for. I refuse to let myself think about anything other then running and avoiding anything that is collapsing in my direction and after a few minutes that pass in one long blur of action and reaction I make it to my ship, and it's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I take off moments before the planet dies beneath me. I believe that neither I nor the universe shall be weeping for it.

I sit in the cockpit of my home, half dead, my suit and adrenaline being the only things that are holding me together and I let myself smile. I fly past the GFS Olympus, and send the message MISSION COMPLETE, I return the Admirals salute before leaving the armada behind.

I want a chance to recover before I begin carrying another worlds burdens. I can take it though, because I can. Because I am Samus Aran and because:

I am the Hunter. And I am a hero. And I am proud of it no matter what happens.


End file.
